Vol. 10, Special Issue 8 (2021)

Author(s):
Sunitha Karunakaran, Hareesh Sasisdharan and Gopika Thattat Gopinathan

Abstract:
Canine babesiosis is a life-threatening disease caused by tick transmitted protozoan parasites that infect erythrocytes, belonging to genus Babesia. Important Babesia species responsible for canine infections include B. gibsoni & B. canis. Both the organisms are transmitted by Rhipicephalus or Haemaphysalis tick vectors and are reported worldwide. A total of 357dogs suspected for various tick transmitted infections presented to the veterinary surgeon, clinical laboratory during a six- year period from 2014 to 2020 were included in the study. Ticks (25 Nos) as a whole were collected randomly from dogs with severe infestation at the time of presentation and also processed as templates for molecular diagnosis. Two hundred and nine samples-209 (58%) out of 357canine samples and 20 (80%) out of 25 tick templates studied were found to harbor B. gibsoni. The results of the present study show that Taqman based Real Time PCR can be reliably used for the qualitative detection of B. gibsoni in EDTA blood samples and tick templates. To the authors knowledge this is the first report of RT PCR-based molecular detection of B. gibsoni among canine population and in ticks recovered from them in Thrissur district, Kerala state.